פנה

פנה¹ face, presence

Pronunciation

• Tiberian: pānîm, construct pənê^[1][2]
• Samaritan reading tradition: fā̊nəm, construct fā̊ni^[3][4]

Forms

פָּנִים (pānîm) noun, masculine, plural only^[3][5] MACULA files the word under a singular lemma פָּנֶה, but that singular is not used: the noun occurs only in the plural פָּנִים, construct פְּנֵי, with suffixes פָּנַי, פָּנֶיךָ, פָּנָיו.^[1][3][5] HALOT counts it 2,127 times and explains the plural as a plural of extension.^[3] It usually takes a plural verb, rarely a singular one (Lamentations 4:16).^[5] With prepositions it forms לִפְנֵי (lip̄nê) “before, in front of”, with suffixes לְפָנַי, לְפָנֶיךָ, written לפניך in an ostracon from Arad, and מִפְּנֵי (mippənê) “from before, because of”.^[3]

Etymology

The noun “face” is inherited from Proto-Semitic *pan- (“face”).^[6][7] HALOT derives it from a two-consonant root and lists the plural noun in Ugaritic pnm, with the preposition lpn, in Phoenician pnm, Moabite and Imperial Aramaic, and Akkadian pānu (“front, (plural) face”), with the prepositions lapāni and ana pān (“in front of”).^[3][8][9] BDB and Gesenius–Buhl add Old South Arabian and Phoenician forms meaning “in front of”, and compare Arabic فِنَاء (fināʾ, “forecourt”) and Classical Syriac ܦܢܝܬܐ (pənîṯā, “side, region”).^[5][10][3]

Kogan counts *pan- among the Proto-Semitic words that Aramaic lost, replacing it with the dual of the word for “nose”; only Official Aramaic still shows traces of it.^[7][11] Hebrew kept the old noun, and the same “nose” word appears beside it in אַפַּיִם (ʾappayim, “nostrils, face”).^[7]

Wiktionary and most lexica relate it to the verb פָּנָה (pānâ, “to turn”), the face being what one turns towards someone.^[6][12] Gesenius–Buhl doubts that direction, since Akkadian has the noun but no such verb, and suggests that the verb was formed from the noun, while Haupt took the noun for an old plural of פֶּה (pe, “mouth”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Davies lists the word in a bowl inscription from Ḥorvat ʿUza, in Cross's reading, which he dates to the middle or later 7th century BC.^[13] In the Bible it is one of the commonest nouns, and it is already in the archaic poems: in the Song of Deborah the mountains quaked mippənê YHWH “before the Lord” (Judges 5:5), and in the Song of Moses God says ʾastîrâ p̄ānay mēhem “I will hide my face from them” (Deuteronomy 32:20).^[14][1] Sáenz-Badillos writes only that such archaic passages might go back to the 12th or 13th century BC.^[15]

Semantic evolution

HALOT arranges the uses in four groups.^[3] The first is the face of an animal, a heavenly being or a person, with gestures such as falling on one's face or covering it (Genesis 17:3, Genesis 38:15).^[3] The face also shows the person's attitude, so that “setting one's face” towards a place means setting out for it (Genesis 31:21), an idiom shared with Akkadian pānī šakānu.^[3] The second is what is in front: the front of a building or of a turban, the vanguard of an army, the edge of a sword (Ecclesiastes 10:10) and, in time, ləp̄ānîm “formerly” (Deuteronomy 2:10), like Akkadian pānû “earlier”.^[3][5] The third is the face of God, which a worshipper “seeks” and which God may hide or turn towards someone.^[3] The fourth, and the largest, is the noun with prepositions, which turned it into a set of particles: lip̄nê “before”, in space, time and rank, mippənê “because of”, ʿal-pənê “upon the surface of”, as in ʿal-pənê təhôm “upon the face of the deep” (Genesis 1:2).^[3][5][1]

The Septuagint renders it most often by Ancient Greek πρόσωπον (prósōpon), and in the prepositional phrases by ἐνώπιον (enṓpion) and ἔναντι (énanti).^[1][16] The Dead Sea Scrolls use it 1,720 times.^[17] Modern Hebrew פָּנִים (paním) keeps the senses “face” and “inside” in Modern Hebrew, and Yiddish פּנים (ponem) “face” passed into English as punim.^[6]

Timeline

• Archaic Hebrew poetry – mippənê YHWH in the Song of Deborah (Judges 5:5) and ʾastîrâ p̄ānay in the Song of Moses (Deuteronomy 32:20).^[14][1]
• Classical Biblical Hebrew – nearly half of the 2,126 biblical occurrences are in Genesis to Kings.^[1]
• Iron Age inscriptions – lpnyk “before you” in an ostracon from Arad (Arad 7:6).^[3]
• 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint renders it as Ancient Greek πρόσωπον (prósōpon) and ἐνώπιον (enṓpion).^[18][1]
• 2nd century BC – 2nd century AD – 1,720 occurrences in the Dead Sea Scrolls.^[19][17]

Meanings

Noun

1. the face of a person, an animal or a heavenly being.^[3][5]
2. the face as showing a person's mood or intention: śîm pānîm literally “to put the face”: to set out, or to be resolved.^[3]
3. the front of a building or an object; the vanguard of an army; the edge of a blade.^[3]
4. (of God) the face or presence of God, sought in worship, hidden in anger.^[3][5]
5. the surface of the earth, the water or the deep, in ʿal-pənê.^[5]
6. (temporal) ləp̄ānîm “formerly, in earlier times”.^[3]

Preposition

1. lip̄nê: before, in front of, in the presence of; before in time.^[3][5]
2. mippənê: from before; because of.^[3]

Word family

• לִפְנֵי (lip̄nê)
• פְּנִימָה (pənîmâ)
• פְּנִימִי (pənîmî)

Descendants

• Modern Hebrew פָּנִים (paním)^[6]
• Yiddish פּנים (ponem), whence English punim and Dutch ponem^[6]

פנה² to turn

Pronunciation

• Tiberian: pānâ^[12][1]
• Samaritan reading tradition: imperfect yā̊fā̊nu, yā̊fån^[4]

Forms

פָּנָה (pānâ) verb^[12] Qal perfect פָּנָה, imperfect יִפְנֶה, short form וַיִּפֶן, imperative פְּנֵה, infinitive פְּנוֹת, participle פֹּנֶה.^[12][20] Besides the qal it has a piel (פִּנָּה “to clear away”), a hiphil (הִפְנָה “to turn”) and a hophal (מָפְנֶה “turned, facing”).^[21] MACULA counts 134 occurrences.^[1]

Etymology

The verb “to turn” is inherited Semitic: HALOT lists the Aramaic verb פנא (pnʾ, “to turn”) of Old Aramaic, Palmyrene, Jewish Aramaic and Mandaic, Classical Syriac ܦܢܐ (pnā, “to turn, return”), Akkadian panû (“to turn towards, go in front”) and a Ugaritic verb “pn” “to turn oneself”.^[21][22] BDB and Klein compare Arabic فَنِيَ (faniya, “to pass away, vanish”) and Ge'ez ፈነወ (fannawa, “to send away”).^[12][23] HALOT and Gesenius–Buhl also cite Egyptian pnꜥ (“to turn”).^[21][20] Tawil sets an Akkadian question with the same verb, “to whom else should I turn?”, beside the Hebrew use with אֶל (ʾel, “to”), “to turn to” other gods (Deuteronomy 31:18).^[24]

The relation to פָּנִים (pānîm, “face”) is debated: BDB and Klein put the noun with the verb, while Gesenius–Buhl thinks the verb may have been formed from the noun, as Akkadian has the noun without a matching verb of turning.^[12][23][10] Kogan traces the Central Semitic word for “wheel”, Hebrew אוֹפָן (ʾôp̄ān, “wheel”), probably to this verbal root *pny.^[25]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is common in the prose of Genesis to Kings and in the prophets, but it is absent from the archaic poems.^[1] Its first use in the canon, wayyip̄nû miššām hāʾănāšîm “the men turned from there” (Genesis 18:22), shows the basic sense, to turn away in a direction.^[1][21]

Semantic evolution

In the qal HALOT distinguishes turning in a direction, turning to someone (to idols, to the spirits of the dead, Leviticus 19:31, or to God), turning to look, turning round and going away, and turning one's back (pānâ ʿōrep̄).^[21] Of time it means “to decline”: lip̄nôṯ ʿereḇ “as evening turned” (Genesis 24:63).^[21] The piel means to clear a house or a road, as in Isaiah 40:3, “clear the way of the Lord”.^[21] The Septuagint renders it by Ancient Greek ἐπιβλέπω (epiblépō), ἐπιστρέφω (epistréphō) and βλέπω (blépō), stressing now the turning, now the looking.^[1][16] Modern Hebrew פָּנָה (paná) means “to turn, to face, to address”.^[6]

Timeline

• Classical Biblical Hebrew – 66 of the 134 occurrences are in Genesis to Kings, beginning with Genesis 18:22.^[1]
• 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint renders it as Ancient Greek ἐπιβλέπω (epiblépō) and ἐπιστρέφω (epistréphō).^[18][1]
• 2nd century BC – 2nd century AD – the Dead Sea Scrolls use the verb, among them the Community Rule.^[19][17]

Meanings

Verb

1. qal: to turn in a direction; to turn round and go away.^[21][12]
2. qal: to turn to someone, to idols or to God, for help or worship.^[21]
3. qal: to turn and look;^[6] (of a building) to face a direction.^[21][12]
4. qal (of time): to decline, of evening or morning.^[21]
5. piel: to clear away; to clear a house or a road.^[21]
6. hiphil: to turn something; to turn one's back, to flee.^[21]
7. hophal: to be turned, to face.^[21]

Word family

• אוֹפָן (ʾôp̄ān)

Descendants

• Modern Hebrew פָּנָה (paná)^[6]

פנה³ corner

Pronunciation

• Tiberian: pinnâ^[26][1]
• Samaritan reading tradition: fanna, plural fannūto^[27][4]

Forms

פִּנָּה (pinnâ) noun, feminine^[26] Construct פִּנַּת, plural פִּנּוֹת, once masculine plural פִּנִּים (Zechariah 14:10).^[26][27] MACULA counts 30 occurrences.^[1]

Etymology

The origin of “corner” is uncertain.^[27] HALOT suggests, after Gesenius–Buhl, a root פנן (pnn), a by-form of פָּנָה (pānâ, “to turn”), and Klein derives it from the same base.^[27][28][29] The nearest cognate is Ugaritic pnt (“joint, vertebra”), which DULAT sets beside the Hebrew word.^[30][27]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun first appears in the canon in the Priestly description of the altar, whose horns stand ʿal ʾarbaʿ pinnōṯāyw “on its four corners” (Exodus 27:2).^[1][27]

Semantic evolution

The corner is that of an altar, a house, a roof, a gate or a street;^[1][16] ʾeḇen pinnâ is a cornerstone (Job 38:6), and rōʾš pinnâ “the head of the corner” (Psalm 118:22) the stone that the builders rejected.^[27][26] From the corner of a wall the word came to mean battlements and corner towers (Zephaniah 1:16), and figuratively the leaders of a people, its “cornerstones” (Judges 20:2, Isaiah 19:13).^[27] The Septuagint translates it by Ancient Greek γωνία (gōnía), and in Psalm 118:22 by kephalḕ gōnías.^[1][16] The Temple Scroll alone has 30 of the 63 occurrences in the Dead Sea Scrolls.^[17] Modern Hebrew פִּנָּה (piná) still means “corner”.^[6]

Timeline

• Classical Biblical Hebrew – the corners of the altar in the Priestly texts (Exodus 27:2).^[1]
• 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint renders it as Ancient Greek γωνία (gōnía).^[18][1]
• 2nd century BC – 2nd century AD – 63 occurrences in the Dead Sea Scrolls, half of them in the Temple Scroll.^[19][17]

Meanings

Noun

1. a corner of an altar, a house, a roof, a gate or a street.^[27][26]
2. ʾeḇen pinnâ, rōʾš pinnâ: a cornerstone.^[27]
3. battlements, a corner tower.^[27][28]
4. (figurative) a chief, a leader of the people.^[27][26]

Descendants

• Modern Hebrew פִּנָּה (piná)^[6]